Hot-embossed features are prepared by pushing customized and standard silicon calibration gratings, known as masters, into either polystyrene or polycarbonate, which are kept above their glass transition temperatures. A droplet of a silver nanoparticle ink is then dispensed over one of these as-formed grooves using an inkjet printer. The ink fills the grooves as a consequence of capillary forces and is observed to form tracks with a uniform width. The tracks are described as 'invisible' on account of having widths ranging from 5 to 15 μm. Wider tracks can be produced by dispensing more droplets and tracks with different morphologies can be produced by using different masters. Several as-prepared features are thermally treated to produce conductive silver tracks. The conductivity of the tracks is found to be ~20% that of bulk silver.
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